Creators: Joshua Williamson (writer), Andrea Milana (penciler), Lee Loughridge (colorist)
Story: Zartan now believes he has all the information he needs to start finding more energon for his own purposes. Recovering from the events of the Dreadnok War, the Joes take Autobot Hound captive as Duke is quite upset and wants answers. Meanwhile, Matt Trakker gets a notice to meet someone. Back at the Pitt, the Joes, thinking they'd get a little bit of time off, are quickly reassigned more missions by Hawk, including meeting up with Snow Job. Duke gets filled in by Hound on some of the basics and that it was Decepticon Starscream who killed his friend. Matt Trakker meets with an agent at a race track but they are interrupted by Scrap Iron.
Writing: I really like how Williamson is taking Duke down this emotional path we're seeing. As Clutch says, that's not normally him. But Duke is in a changing world, saw his buddy die, lost Cobra Commander, almost died themselves and were saved by Hound, who his friend kept from him. Williamson is also slowly introducing other Hasbro properties into the series and seeing how those pan out in the long run (will M.A.S.K. (Mobile Armored Strike Kommand) get its own series? Or will Trakker be part of the Joes?). We also see Hawk is keeping the Joes busy because of his plans.
Art: While the action isn't center stage in this issue, the art is pretty good. We get some good details that the Joe team is still beat up and bruised from battling the Dreadnoks and don't "heal" overnight. The colors look good, when they're outside in the desert, lots of reds and oranges (which make sense) and darker tones inside. And Scrap Iron's introduction was pretty good.
Overall: An interesting "Cobra-less" issue (as we don't get any panels with Cobra) but definitely an issue that takes its time to remind us of where we are in the narrative while also setting up the next couple of story arcs. I'm interested to see where the M.A.S.K. storyline goes as well. They've put a good mystery spin on it so far.
